Dr. Frugal

Condoleezza for VP?

There's been some speculation that none other than Condoleezza Rice is eying the vice president spot in the Republican party. I never really cared for her because I thought she had no backbone. If we knew conclusively that John McCain would live out every day of his potential term and there was a 0% chance she'd be president I'd be ok with her as VP--she's a great panderer and is totally spineless. She's also good at doing what her superiors say and would be handy to fetch Dunkin Donuts coffee in the Oval Office. However, I see future meetings with say, Hugo Chavez, going something like this: Chavez: "Madame President, since we are the superior country we command you immediately cede Texas and Puerto Rico to us." Rice: "Ok, whatever you want. I don't want any trouble."

Great Depression 2

This is a follow-up that seemed timely in light of this article in The Independent claiming that we're experiencing the Great Depression 2008 build. I still don't believe it even though the Drudge Reports posts news stories like 1 in 5 Ohioans on Welfare! and 1 out of 3 West Virginia families receive food stamps!. I think most people are pessimistic by nature and even if they're personally not experiencing any problems (other than high gas prices, falling value of their homes) they're so quick to scream "Great Depression 2" that it incites that same panic in everyone around them. Before totally freaking out consider this: is your home *really* worth less than you paid for it? If it is, did it ever occur to you that it's YOUR fault for buying it when you did? Everyone is so quick to blame everyone else for their problems that individual responsibility is often overlooked. I could have easily bought a house three years ago but did I really want to pay $300k for a house that I *knew* was $200k? Of course not, so I continued renting. Moreover, I have no plans to stop renting until I find a house that's actually listed for what it's worth and not some ungodly number being sold by someone desperate to make a profit because they overpaid; not my problem.

City Budget Cuts

Would you want this in your city? Yikes, I wouldn't. I don't have a problem with civilian "report takers" for the fire department but when you're talking about having non-sworn civilians replacing offers to "respond to burglaries" I think you're just inviting trouble. If my house were burglarized and someone in a "polo shirt" showed up to help me I would feel even more at risk. I realize times are tough and everyone is cutting back (including our cities) but maybe adding to the police and fire departments with people like you and me isn't the most cost-effective measure.

Google\'s Free-Fall

Remember when Google's stock was waaaaay up there? It's down now because its click-through rate is stagnant. Well duh--people are finally learning that the ads (see the one above this entry) aren't really all that relevant in most cases. Yes, they're relevant to the topic--Google is great at that, but the quality of the sites that advertise in those spots can be so low that people (yes, people I know) go out of their way NOT to click on them. Big shocker, I know. In other news, how happy was Yahoo to post that story?

CA House Prices down 26%

California continues to lead the downward trend in housing, with the median price falling 26%. I wish the houses around me would fall 26%--I'd be buying so fast you wouldn't know what to do. The median house in my neighborhood (row house, mind you) is $1.1 million--that's in the middle of this downward trend too. Apparently they were about $1.8m about a year ago. Maybe I'm just too far away from my last experience in city living but for a 1200 square foot row house, I think $1.1m is a little high--I would think it would top out around 800k or so. Regardless, a 26% falloff from here would go a long way for me being able to afford a house.

Homes Down Again

I should put this entry on auto-write. Homes sales are falling again. It was released today that they're at a 13-year low. Big surprise. The median home price also fell to $244,000. I think in six months or so I'm going to attempt to buy a house. I've rented for nearly 30 years and it seems to be as good a time as any. Unfortunately I live in a really expensive area (DC) and the houses here are all around $700k, well beyond my means. Maybe I'll win the lottery; that would be nice.

Gore-Led Ticket?

There are talks in DC about an Al Gore-led ticket if August comes and neither Obama nor Clinton is the clear front-runner. Personally, I think this is a terrible idea because yes, Al Gore has a healthy following and is clearly a smart guy, fans of both Obama and Clinton are so rabid for their respective candidates (see Democratic Defectors) that I think throwing Gore in as "the" candidate would certainly increase the number of infuriated Democrats that would vote for the growingly liberal McCain.

Trucker Strike?

Truckers are apparently getting ready to strike. How catastrophic would that be for our shaky economy right now? I'll go ahead and field that--pretty darn catastrophic. From the article: At issue is the rising cost of diesel fuel, which has reached or exceeded $4 per gallon in at least 17 states. But Little does not expect his strike to bring down the per-gallon price of gas, nor does he expect to have any effect on the oil companies. “What I would personally like to see is our federal and state governments, until our economy recovers, suspend federal and state fuel taxes,” the 49-year-old said. “The second thing I’d like to see is an oversight committee for truck insurance, which is part of what’s taking us down. “The average owner/operator is paying $600 to $800 a month for truck insurance. It’s based on personal credit, which means the monthly cost is going up for a lot of truckers because their credit is going down. “Everything in the world is going up (in price), except for what we do. I lose money if I start my truck, and that truck is paid for — free and clear.” I for one did not realize how much of the cost fell directly on the truckers themselves. Maybe it's because when I'm out driving I can more quickly recognize the "name brand" trucks but look past the non-logo'd ones. Regardless, if you want to start giving out subsidies maybe it's time to take them away from the all-time-record-profit oil companies and throw some to the blue collar guys making our lives possible.

Dem-Defectors

I know this is supposed to be "bad" but I think it's great that people are finally starting to vote for the person instead of the party. To save you the time of actually reading it, the article says that 1 in 5 democrats will vote for McCain if their current candidate does not receive the nomination. I can understand that. I would vote for Obama first, followed by McCain then Hillary. I don't care if he's a Republican and pro-war. I happen to agree with him on more things than I agree with her on. Abortion aside, he's a Democrat and she's a Conservative anyway so maybe I'm just missing what the big deal is.

50 Cent Gas Tax

I can't believe I'm linking to Fox News but desperate times call for desperate measures. The article in question is that a Michigan congressman wants to place a $.50/gallon tax on gas. The article says: Polls show that a majority of Americans support policies that would reduce greenhouse gases. But when it comes to paying for it, it's a different story. Wow! No kidding--people want things to get magically better without actually having to do it themselves? Wow! Shocking! I would have never, EVER been able to guess that without the timely, savvy reporting of Fox News.